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Article

A Relation-Aware Multi-Driver Pipeline for Interpretable Low-Frequency Load Disaggregation Under Partial Observability

by
Balázs András Tolnai
,
Zheng Grace Ma
and
Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen
*
SDU Center for Energy Informatics, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, The Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Algorithms 2026, 19(7), 516; https://doi.org/10.3390/a19070516 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 13 May 2026 / Revised: 19 June 2026 / Accepted: 24 June 2026 / Published: 27 June 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimization in Renewable Energy Systems (2nd Edition))

Abstract

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) estimates component-level energy use from aggregate measurements, but low-frequency data limit appliance signatures and make overlapping or weakly observed loads difficult to separate. This paper proposes a relation-aware multi-driver pipeline for interpretable low-frequency load attribution under partial observability. The method does not require supervised component labels or predefined appliance models. It combines semantic feature typing, heterogeneous relation discovery, feature-family construction, mechanism-aware evidence modeling, conservative allocation, event-background separation, and role-based attribution. Only evidence-supported load is assigned to feature families, while unsupported variation is retained as unexplained demand or residual load. The method is evaluated in a simulated EV-focused building case and through measured-building validation on nine ADRENALIN buildings. In the EV case, the selected EV-aligned family achieved a correlation of 0.990 and an NMAE of 0.100 against the withheld EV reference, while heat-pump and base-load recovery was weaker, with NMAE values of 0.565 and 0.895. In the ADRENALIN validation, temperature-associated families achieved median NMAE values of 0.594 using the restricted feature set and 0.576 using the full feature set. Additional comparison, ablation, sensitivity, diagnostic, and runtime analyses show that the pipeline is most effective for dominant event-driven loads, remains limited for smoother or masked lower-magnitude components, and treats unexplained variation explicitly. The results demonstrate a practical framework for interpretable driver-based load attribution when component labels are unavailable or incomplete.
Keywords: non-intrusive load monitoring; low-frequency load disaggregation; relation-aware attribution; feature-family modeling; partial observability; electric vehicle charging; interpretable energy analytics non-intrusive load monitoring; low-frequency load disaggregation; relation-aware attribution; feature-family modeling; partial observability; electric vehicle charging; interpretable energy analytics

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Tolnai, B.A.; Ma, Z.G.; Jørgensen, B.N. A Relation-Aware Multi-Driver Pipeline for Interpretable Low-Frequency Load Disaggregation Under Partial Observability. Algorithms 2026, 19, 516. https://doi.org/10.3390/a19070516

AMA Style

Tolnai BA, Ma ZG, Jørgensen BN. A Relation-Aware Multi-Driver Pipeline for Interpretable Low-Frequency Load Disaggregation Under Partial Observability. Algorithms. 2026; 19(7):516. https://doi.org/10.3390/a19070516

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tolnai, Balázs András, Zheng Grace Ma, and Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen. 2026. "A Relation-Aware Multi-Driver Pipeline for Interpretable Low-Frequency Load Disaggregation Under Partial Observability" Algorithms 19, no. 7: 516. https://doi.org/10.3390/a19070516

APA Style

Tolnai, B. A., Ma, Z. G., & Jørgensen, B. N. (2026). A Relation-Aware Multi-Driver Pipeline for Interpretable Low-Frequency Load Disaggregation Under Partial Observability. Algorithms, 19(7), 516. https://doi.org/10.3390/a19070516

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